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burnlikeastar-writelikeanauthor · 2 years ago

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The world shifted...

Frostbitten Feathers

Prologue

The Fall of Man was a decade ago. Humans created their own demise. Avians, half human and half bird, were a result of genetic tampering, but the five avians humans had created escaped and multiplied. And suddenly, there were more than the scientists could handle.

They kept it quiet, trying to take care of the problem without informing anyone.

But the avians were smarter and faster than humans. They heard and smelled better and their skin was thick and sensitive to the touch. After a few weeks of existence, the original avians developed powers, making them even harder to control or contain.

Some could move so quickly you couldn't see them. Others melted into shadows and completely disappeared. Still others developed into mind readers, while others could move without a sound. More learned to control fire and touch it unharmed. Others could speak to animals, befriend them and retain a loyal army.

One could speak and control the minds of whoever heard them. Some say it didn't matter if you heard, you'd be forced to listen.

Oh, the avians bided their time. They kept quiet about their very existence. They only revealed themselves to the humans they claimed as their mates. Pure avian children were rare and scarcely seen. Half-blood human and avian children, however, quickly outnumbered their purebred relatives and delicately connected the human and Avian worlds.

No one saw it coming.

Before the Avians, humanity had gone back to a caste system with all of the Highers sitting in a floating city. The cities were easier to access then, with elevators, beautiful arches, and stairs. Even the people who lived below lived comfortably. Few went without. It was simply a two caste system—those who lived above and those who lived below.

It didn't matter what your job was. It didn't matter how you got up there. You were either above or below. It's not that the Belows were looked down upon; they just couldn’t afford or simply didn't want to live above. Everything was paradise.

Until it wasn't.

The avians came without warning. They attacked the floating cities and made rings around the cities below, preventing people from leaving. All at once, every city seems to be surrounded.

There were so many of them. Humanity couldn't fight back. The humans might have outnumbered the avians, but with their enhancements, a single avian could control a group of five humans alone. Escape was impossible.

The world shifted.

There were still two castes, but they were vastly different from what the humans were used to. The avians assumed their place in the sky cities, and every single human was forced to be below. Now you were either avian or human. There was no in between.

One of these sat between scenic mountains and rolling fields. Cora, the lower city, and Cordelia, the floating paradise (The city as a whole being called The Core). Cordelia was soon called the Gilded Cage by the humans, and Cora became ‘the city’ and nothing more. Humans were three things to avians—slaves, servants, or Pets. Pets were human mates to the avians, or that’s what the original intention was. . While some avians were traditional and only kept one Pet, some had upwards of ten.

Humans had no choice. Humans couldn't refuse and they couldn't get out. The avians tore down every arch, every staircase, and every elevator but one. There was only one, but it was so heavily guarded it was impossible to get to it without avian intervention.

And there was only one way for humans to get to the Gilded Cage. They were taken. The avians came down and chose their mates. The humans could do nothing to stop them. Cora was overcrowded, overwhelmed, and left to fend for itself. So many people died.

Avians thrived in their floating city. Several groups of avians chose their avian mates from Cascade, the avian built city. But the humans were left to work below while the avians lived above in paradise.

They had gotten their revenge.

They hadn't asked to be created. They had been changed and asked to bow to an inferior people that hurt others for their own gain. It needed to stop. So it was.

#Frostbitten Feathers #sci fi writing #romance #one-sided enemies to lovers #idk what else to put here #to the like two people who will see this it's posted on quotev too #I'm like nearly done with it there

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